Curse

John Thomas · Mar 25, 2005, 06:48 PM // 18:48

I'd love to make a long story short, but seem incapable of doing so...

Problem: ATI Radeon 9000 mobility in my laptop with 2.8 gig AMD and 512 in RAM...Worked for the February BWE, but not the March BWE...

I kept getting a load screen up to 100% and then a crash, followed by hardboot because the machine would totally lock up. An error message identified the problem as a thread error of some sort...when I tried to use the error reporting option, it would say it was an identified error, but when I looked at the text of the error troubleshooting site it simply read "non-specific" and suggested the error was video adapter related...

I have made no cahnges to my machine since the last BWE (ran beautifully then)...scanned for viruses, updated, rolled back, uninstalled and reinstalled drivers (new and old from site and disk) after using various restore points through Windows XP Pro...I'm out of possibilities except for the one than sends a cold shudder through my brain...COULD CHANGES IN THE GAME HAVE CAUSED THIS?

I consider myself fairly computer savy...I rebuilt the computer lab at the school I work for (yeah, I'm a teacher...get over it)...I made a bunch of crap Compaqes work and can even get the game to operate on them...but not my laptop (this is really pissing off my wife bacause I WILL hog the computer)...My desktop runs a nVidia FX 5600 (2.2 gig AMD and 512 RAM)...An older sys with an older card does fine craked up on all video settings (Doom3, Half-life 2 played sweet cranked to near full settings)...I'd rather use the laptop...I'm just clueless as to what could cause the trouble...

Any thoughts or hints? The big trouble is...I can't test the machine unless the game is available...that's when I found the problem and lost a whole day to trouble-shooting...

It seems a bug thread suggested a similar issue with at least one other user (yes I've reported the problem...not seen feedback)...Just need someone to "throw me a freaking bone here..." (yes, I'm not ashamed to quote Dr. Evil)

Bgnome · Mar 25, 2005, 08:00 PM // 20:00

have you tried the latest catalyst drivers? the omega drivers are compatible with laptop cards -- GW runs great on my laptop with a 9600

Darkmane · Mar 25, 2005, 09:11 PM // 21:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bgnome

have you tried the latest catalyst drivers? the omega drivers are compatible with laptop cards -- GW runs great on my laptop with a 9600

You may also want to try driverheaven.net for your drivers. They tend to know what they are doing much better than ATI ... IMO.

Mss Drizzt · Mar 25, 2005, 10:56 PM // 22:56

You might want to try and delete you TCP/IP and reinstall it. You might be getting a packet loss. Try and run some packet scans. Also run 3dmark2005 and see it it get all the way thru the test.

http://www.guru3d.com/

You can get the test here as well as all the drivers for you card.

Enix · Mar 26, 2005, 01:09 AM // 01:09

Sounds like some setting in GW got messed up. Did you try deleting GW and reinstalling? If worse comes to worse, you could try reformatting. 0_o

John Thomas · Mar 26, 2005, 06:27 PM // 18:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bgnome

have you tried the latest catalyst drivers? the omega drivers are compatible with laptop cards -- GW runs great on my laptop with a 9600

Yeah, I tried the new catylist drivers and rolled back to the old ones as well as installed them from my recovery disk after completely uninstalling the video adapter and all the video and related drivers...problem remained unchanged...haven't tried the omega drivers...maybe next month...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darkmane

You may also want to try driverheaven.net for your drivers. They tend to know what they are doing much better than ATI ... IMO.

I'll giv it a look, thanx...Some folks might think it odd that ATI wouldn't have the best drivers for their own card, but then again...I ran into similar issues with an nVidia FX 5600 put out by MSI...the MSI drivers were NOT working with UT2004 after I installed the dredded DirectX 9.0c...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mss Drizzt

You might want to try and delete you TCP/IP and reinstall it. You might be getting a packet loss. Try and run some packet scans. Also run 3dmark2005 and see it it get all the way thru the test.

http://www.guru3d.com/

You can get the test here as well as all the drivers for you card.

Wow! What a comprehensive site...even if I can't find a fix here, It's still a great resource...thanx...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Enix

Sounds like some setting in GW got messed up. Did you try deleting GW and reinstalling? If worse comes to worse, you could try reformatting. 0_o

Reinstalled after re-daonloading the client (twice)...reformat...hmmmm...ah, no...but I'm not completely desperate...yet.

Thanks for the responses folks...I'll let you know if any of it worked...in a month

Rikar · Mar 27, 2005, 05:44 AM // 05:44

I'm not all that computer saavy, but I am a retired teacher! Have had similar crashes previous two BWEs. Game plays for a while and then in 5 minutes or 5 hours (and everywhere in between), it locks up, blanks the screen, and plays repeating "tic tocks" over audio. All this on Dell Dimension 8400 tower with Radeon X800XT, which is one of those new fangled PCI express ATI cards. "Dell" put two new hard drives in, and I loaded new BIOS version and updated video card to Cat 3.5 as well as the motherboard chip set. NO difference this March BWE.

Have ranted to Dell this past week, slugged thru 10 hours of diagnostic testing (nothing seems wrong according to that), and have a pending call for another Indian or Argentinan who has a one month course from Dell to continue the hunt. Will let you know if discover anything earth-shaking.

Mss Drizzt · Mar 27, 2005, 06:55 AM // 06:55

Please check your audio settings. Make sure you dont have any IRQ conflicts. And if they send a tech out tell them to send him with a new graphics card. They should mail it to you and have you put it in as it would be cheaper for them and faster for you. Then to test it run a time demo from a different game thru a loop. For say 30 min.

Rikar · Mar 27, 2005, 06:03 PM // 18:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mss Drizzt

Please check your audio settings. Make sure you dont have any IRQ conflicts. And if they send a tech out tell them to send him with a new graphics card. They should mail it to you and have you put it in as it would be cheaper for them and faster for you. Then to test it run a time demo from a different game thru a loop. For say 30 min.

From the sound of your post, i guess it applies to me. Looked for audio conflicts -- none. Have suggested exactly what you say about graphics card to Dell but have to jump thru hoops first i suppose. Thanks very much for your post.

Mss Drizzt · Mar 27, 2005, 06:10 PM // 18:10

Then if they are giving you shit just call ATI they have a great RMA program.

Also check to make sure that the heat sink on the card is seated well, and that the fan spins free.

Rikar · Mar 28, 2005, 02:27 AM // 02:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mss Drizzt

Then if they are giving you shit just call ATI they have a great RMA program.

Also check to make sure that the heat sink on the card is seated well, and that the fan spins free.

Will do. Many thanks.

Enix · Mar 28, 2005, 02:33 AM // 02:33

Dells arent the greatest with ventallation - combine that with an OEM high end card with a crappy cooling solution and I would say that Heat is your problem.

***Edit- Just looked at your machine. This would help you a little bit.

It is a slot cooler - put it two slots down from your Video card (you will have to move your modem from the picture I saw), and that will help some of the heat problem.

Rikar · Mar 29, 2005, 02:19 AM // 02:19

Thanx Enix. Still plan on holding Dell's feet to the fire (if I can ever get the guy i've talked to again) but have ordered the fan. Hope it all works.... Thanks again.

Zaklex · Apr 01, 2005, 12:11 AM // 00:11

Don't forget about DUST, believe it or not, I've had my 9600 card crash twice in my desktop, the first time I completely removed it and put my old 7000 back in after blowing out all of the dust. The second time I just blew out the dust and it came right back( don't ask, I have no idea why the dust caused it to crash).

Loviatar · Apr 01, 2005, 12:18 AM // 00:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zaklex

Don't forget about DUST, believe it or not, I've had my 9600 card crash twice in my desktop, the first time I completely removed it and put my old 7000 back in after blowing out all of the dust. The second time I just blew out the dust and it came right back( don't ask, I have no idea why the dust caused it to crash).

dust can impare heat transfer heatsink wise and slow the fan a bit (if no sealed bearing)

the general film of dust all over acts as a thin insulator which slows heat transfer as well

if ramsinks are dusty include that

Rikar · Apr 08, 2005, 01:43 AM // 01:43

Will see if Dell thinks of that, too

. They still haven't gotten back with me. Will yell at them (er... their voicemail) tomorrow. Thanks all.